As I grow older, my neuroses become more and more apparent to me. Apparently everyone else has known about them for quite some time.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

And Then What Happened....

Richmond Marathon Race Report 2011

Slept in a hotel down town with Pixie Green the night before
my race (scantily clad pillow fights aside, I slept really well...). I woke up early and walked to the meet point. I had connected with
a runner on the SunTrust Marathon Facebook Page who needed someone to please
pick up his packet. 5 emails and three
weeks later, I handed him his race packet on the steps of SunTrust Bank.

I got some pre-race love from SpeeDee. Connected with the posse. And got a hug from Coach Black that made me
feel down right warm. At this point, I
was pretty sure that TODAY WAS MY DAY. I had a goal, a back up goal, and a
basket goal.

In the start corral there was snuggling, it was cozy, Jess
& Jodi joined the fun, and we all saw DeNiece “off to find her group”. It was the last time I would see DeNiece until
we finished, and as she walked away I thought – go get it Denise. Go get that BQ.

Miles 1 – 5 Karasmatic & Q, 3L & KC, & I had
way too much fun talking about… well, NOT talking about Lickable Abs, Cycling,
and other random sh*t. There was hazing,
razzing, and general love in the air. I
felt PERFECT. I am
certain I drank at least 8 oz. of water in the first 6 miles. Stingers on schedule. I felt great, and when it was time to decide on my pace for the next 6 miles, I decided to go for the UBER goal pace. It wasn't blistering, I run 8:50's all the time.

Saw the fam in the Party Zone at 6, cruised through to the hill at 10. We held each other in check, I refilled my empty bottle. There was something on the edge
of my mind that wondered why my joints were achy at mile 10. I brushed it back with a positive thought
about not thinking negative thoughts.

Miles 10 – 12 Blair! The KING of Pink Nation. It was GREAT
to see him, he has the most epic smile – but I admitted to him, I didn’t feel
quite right at this point. I couldn’t
put my finger on the “why” of it. I
dropped back into a slightly more “easy” pace around a 9.
I wasn’t looking at my watch, just running on feel.

So then what happened? Well, I GOT A HALF MARATHON PR – 1:56:48.

After the half mats I saw Cozy & 3L for the last time
and I thought to myself – go get it girls.

Around 14 I had a bad moment where the entire world
spun. This is a distance I normally find
pretty easy… so… I was weirded out. I
couldn’t walk a straight line & stumbled a few times. My head came back to me, and I started
jogging. MTT Coach Val spotted me… “I’m dizzy”… and so we started walking
together. She was so sweet. “I had to stop 3 times at Chicago” ~ awe,
thanks Val.

I left her, and turned for the bridge. I think I was running again, but maybe
not. Who knows, the entire run at this
point became a play of "how long can you run before the world spins?" SpeeDee jumped
in with me. I told her that I was
chomping down honey stingers and drinking, but something wasn’t on track.

And then what happened?
“GBA_GF, WHY ARE YOU WALKING?” And
T and I connected again.

I said, “Oh good, I was waiting for you.” We left SpeeDee, and I thought, I’m with T
now, I’m invincible.

MCM found me on the course at the junk food stop. I was
going to refill my hand held. Uh, that
only works if you haven’t lost the lid… so I tossed my hand held away. Along with my white Nike visor, which, was
the enemy at that point. Not sure why I
thought that, but ~ what ev. Runners are
weird.

T, to be honest, I don't remember feeling as strong as we
look right here.

T & I made the turn onto Main Street together.

Oh, and remember that time we made running a marathon look
easy? Yeah, me too.

I gave T a salt pill, and she suddenly couldn’t hang. Hindsight:
I should have walked with her then.
But I didn’t know how long until my next dizzy spell, so I was afraid to
walk when my head was OK. A bad decision that seemed sane in the moment.

I kept
plugging forward until on Main Street at an intersection somewhere near the
pastel houses, the Richmond Marathon course actually spun.

Like, a 360.

And so when it stopped spinning I was standing on the side
of the course with my hands on my knees.
I stood up took two steps, staggered, and reached out as the course spun
again. My hand connected with something
metal, the rusty paint bit into my fingers, and I held on for dear life. I was on the sidewalk, holding a street
sign. When I lifted my head a cop in the
intersection pointed at me. I waved him
off and gave him a thumbs up.

I was lying, but ~ runners are weird.

After a minute, I started walking again. And then jogging again. Connected with Karen. And then El.
El gave me her drink & lots of advice.

I made the turn to Boulevard, and then, out of nowhere, Wine
Not Whine was with me. I don’t know how
it happened or where she came from. She ~ shoot I’m all teary thinking back on it ~ she says, “I’m feeling a little
super hero formation here…”. And then
Pants Guy joined us for a few steps (Thanks Pants Guy). So WnW and I made our way to the Party Zone
and my head spun again. I was so happy
she looked so strong and amazing as she ran off… and I thought – go get it WnW.

Then I saw H, and said, “hey, it’s not my day. Its going to take me a while to get there
from here”. I kissed my kids, ate ½ a
banana, a salt pill & took a bottle of water. Got some love from my BFF PAULIE! (thanks Paulie) Something made me glance back
here, and T had caught up. I waited, we
did a GU exchange and T and I, with our bottle of water in hand, set out to
finish this race.

“We’ve run this 100 times.”
Stadium to the Arch. We saw
Cherine (thanks Cherine) and then Illusive at a water stop; (thanks Illusive,
you were great). Into Bellevue, through
the arch (Yeah, Blair, I saw the sign…
and Coach Black, was that the Black Team’s sign tacked onto the bottom?) and I
let T go… and I thought to myself, “She can still get it… I SO hope she can get
it". - go get it T.

I turned my watch screen so it only showed "time of day." See, I had another spell that stopped me in my
tracks and I thought, “Your race is over.
You’re now in survival. Stop
trying to kill yourself and be smart.”

I walked a water stop keeping strictly to the
shade, ate a stinger, and walked while I waited for the spinning to stop. I started running again at a slow jog with the
hopes that I could catch Young Stephanie (who I could see in the distance). I thought, the sooner you finish, the sooner
you can go to bed.

My head ached. My
body ached. I was sleepy. I could not imagine why I felt this way, but
I thought, “It’s a marathon, it’s supposed to hurt.”

I saw The White Rabbit on Brook Rd… and when the white
rabbit took my hand and said, “com’on you’re running” I started running, and
then I ran until Lombardy, AKA, The Lombardy Wind Tunnel.

El, Young Stephane, (me in the back), and Karasmatic

I don’t know if I was walking or running when I heard my
BiolaBud (I pretty much love you) with yet ANOTHER Stephanie on the course inviting me
to join them. We picked up some random
runners, and ran together past the Lululemon corner! (Cheers to you all, you really know how
spectate runners). And then we caught
Young Stephanie and gathered her into the fold, and I was determined we were
going finish this together.

Chronologically things are a bit blurry. It was running punctuated by world spinning.

I looked down Grace and saw a pair of Viking horns. I
thought, “oh, I’ve really disappointed Q.”
(hey, we’re honest here on the blog). I heard his voice all the way down the street,
“I thought I’d missed someone!” He ran
back to me and fell in beside me to run with me…
“What happened?” Not accusatory, more... curiosity.

“Well. It wasn’t my
day. I got dizzy, and walked through the dizzy parts… I think that added a lot time to my run
today.”

He looked/sounded a bit shocked. “Well, I think it probably subtracted a lot
of time from your hospital stay…” I laughed as he continued, “so yeah. If you run through dizziness they get to
scrape you off the ground.”

We chatted a minute and he left me in the capable hands of
beautiful Karasmatic! Young Stephanie, Karasmatic, El & I
made our way in SUPER HERO FORMATION down the street.

Southern Comfort joined us and I realized: Today wasn’t my day, but THIS was how it was
meant to be.

I was running in with my posse, I was with 2 of my
favorite coaches. We were laughing about my disastrous marathon. We were laughing, and I can prove it. (Photo credit to Kty J)

And then what happened? I made peace with my day at mile 26. It wasn’t my day. But it was a great day for a run. And well, we all know how much I love my run.

I have a saying I came up with a few years ago…

“When something goes wrong in a
marathon, it doesn't go wrong by 2 minutes. It goes wrong by 26+ minutes.”

Well I missed my goal by 26+ minutes.

10K 55:57

Half 1:56:48

20 mile split 3:09:57

Chip Time 4:26:19

At the finish, when I connected to H, my son G was laying on
the sidewalk “spectating”. He was asleep
in a sunny patch. Turns out G was pretty
sick all day.

And late last night, after
the race, I joined The Vom- Squad complete with fever, chills, & body
aches. So there’s an explanation as to
why it wasn’t my day, or an excuse, however you want to look at it.

15 comments:

I'm so sorry it wasn't your day but so very happy that it turned out okay and not in the hospital. It was probably harder for you to stop and take care of yourself then it would have been to run hard. You looked incredible. You were there for all your friends...you were amazing!

I'm sure if I wasn't so emotional, I would have some words right now. We both know I have lots of them, but, now, just a few tears and a smile that you finished and a smile for your words, " I made peace with my day at mile 26. It wasn’t my day. But it was a great day for a run. And well, we all know how much I love my run." Proud of you and oh how you inspire me!

Not sure why you have me in tears with this, but there it is. I'm *glad* you made peace with your day at mile 26...

My husband came into the room when I got your 20 mile text. I was frowning, doing mental math that WASN'T adding up right. He asked me what was wrong, and I said I was just hoping that the texts were fucked up, because that couldn't possibly be right. Either that or something was really wrong. Guess we know the answer to that one...

You finished a marathon with the flu. That qualifies as GBA for real. And I can't wait to see what happens next...

Event though I know you struggled through half of that marathon, your recap still reads with a lot of love for running. That's what matters. One race day doesn't make the runner, it's what you do in the days after that race day that make the runner. You my friend can not be broken by on measley race. I just love how much you love running!

Fabulous story of the trials and tribulations of your marathon experience.... However, I think you marathoners are a little scary now, so i'll have to stay in the <10K for another year or so. Much love to you Ginny!Thanks for sharing!

By the way, after I saw Michele off at the half start line I came over to the full start to see if I could connect with y'all again. I looked for a good while around the 4:00 - 4:15 pace groups but never spotted you. Next time! I just registered for Shamrock!

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About GBA GF

Incase of Emergency - BREAK GLASS

GARMIN FORERUNNER 305 Owners ~ Garmin Non-responsive? "nurse g." just wants to remind you that often a soft reset is as easy as holding the MODE & RESET buttons simultaneously for about 10 seconds. Let go of those two buttons, press the power button, and the unit will turn back on.

Defining GBA**

"...And I smiled to myself as I thought of EXACTLY what I would say when he asked me how I was feeling. I mean here I am.

I’m at frickin mile 23 1/2 of a marathon. I’m crushing my PR. I’m running with my POSSE. I have stopped to (unsuccessfully) vom on the side of the course. Yup. I knew what 2 words I would say.... at mile 24 Q dropped the other group, and I was rewarded for my patience. 'How you doing?' 'Galactically BadA$$'."